Explosive powder



PATENT OFFICE.

UNITED STATES ARTHUR LANGMEIER, OF DOVER, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO HERCULES POWDER COMPANY, OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

EXPLOSIVE POWDER.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR LANGMEIER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dover, county of Morris and State of New J ersey,'have invented a new and useful Improvement in Explosive Powders, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object .of my invention is, to produce a free flowing ammonium perchlorate explosive blasting powder which will be waterproofed, sensitized so as to be detonated with a #6 standard detonator (which is generally known as #6 electric blasting cap), and which, when stored, will not form a difiicultly pulverizable hard mass or, in other words, set. Ammonium perchlorate explosives of relatively low strength are desirable for use iirfignany operations, but as heretofore manufactured, they.- cannot be used in wet work; they harden. and set during storage; and they arefrelativcly insensitive.

Ammonium perchlorate and sodium nitrate, two of the desirable constituents of this class of explosives, are readily soluble in water. Sodium nitrate is hygroscopic to the extent of becoming very wet when the humidity of the surrounding medium is high. These properties eliminate the possibility of producing high explosives containing the above substances for use in wet work unless some means of waterproofing is used.

Again, in a powder containing (say) fifteen per cent. ammonium perchlorate, as ordinarily ground or mixed, the individual particles are separated by a considerable distance and unless a carrier is furnished to transmit the explosive wave throughout the explosive, the production of a low strength ammonium perchlorate powder is impossible with ordinary mixing.

Again, ammonium perchlorate and sodium nitrate, when subjected to conditions under which high explosives are stored,will tend to form a hard mass which requires considerable force to pulverize.

In my invention. l coat the ammonium Specificationof Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 8, 1921.

Application filed March 27, 1920. Serial No. 369,281.

perchlorate and sodium nitrate, constituting the main ingredients of my explosive, with trinitrotoluol, whereby I render it waterproof, make it sufficiently sensitive to be detonated with a #6 standard detonator and prevent the same setting into hard lumps or a hard mass.

When these water soluble salts are covered with a film of trinitrotoluol, their solubility is decreased beyond the point where it is objectionable. The explosives are thus waterproofed and are adapted for use in high explosives intended for use in wet work.

While trinitrotoluol will explode with a #6 standard detonator, and ammonium perchlorate will not, ammonium perchlorate coated with trinitrotoluol will detonate with a #6 standard detonator. While, in ex-' plosives containing a low percentage of ammonium perchlorate, the relatively high percentage of sodium nitrate prevents or obstructs the transmission of explosive waves throughout the powder; if the sodium nitrate, or (preferably) both it and the ammonium perchlorate, are coated with trinitrotoluol, the powdenis completely detonated. When trinitrotoluol is subjected to conditions under which high explosives are stored, it will set into lumps, but these lumps are readily broken or crushed. While, as before Sfijlted, uncoated ammonium perchlorate and sodium nitrate will set into a hard mass requiring considerable force to pulverize, they will, if coated with trinitrotoluol, have properties in respect to non-setting similar to trinitrotoluol itself.

My improved explosive powder does not merely contain trinitrotoluol as an ingredient, but must be so manufactured that at least a part of the trinitrotoluol forms a protective film about the particles of ammonium perchlorate and sodium nitrate, while in my powder the water soluble salts are thus coated with the trinitrotoluol, the latter ingredient is by preference present in a considerable proportion beyond that required to effectively coat the salts. ()n. the

' position but without the other hand, if. the trinitrotoluol is merely present as an ingredient without actually forming a protective coating for the salts, its waterproof quality and its non-setting quality will be seriously impaired and it will be impossible to detonate the powder by ordinary means.

A preferred composition is as follows:

20% ammonium perchlorate coated with trinitrotoluol.

49% sodium nitrate'coatedwithtrinitrotoluol.

20% trinitrotoluol.

1% wood pulp.

10% sulfur.

In manufacturing this composition, the ammonium perchlorate and sodium nitrate are placed in a steam-jacketed crystallizing and agitating kettle maintained at a temperature above the melting point of trinitrotoluol but below the melting point of the other ingredients. added gradually with constant agitation. Following this the mixture is'cooled with constant agitation. i

The percentage of trinitrotoluol may vary from three to fifty per cent.

Other ingredients may be substituted for trinitrotoluol, such, for example, as trini: troxylol or-tetranitroanilin.

The addition of sulfur gives increased density, and while it also adds to the sensitiveness of the explosive, its addition would not suflice to render detonatable by ordinary means anexplosive of the foregoing comadherent coating of trinitrotoluol.

ile my invention does not require the use of a special sensitizer, due to the functioning of the trinitrotoluol as such, it does not exclude the addition of a special sensitizer, iii place of, or in addition to, sulfur, where increased sensitiveness is desired for specialpurpose, but such sensitizing ingredients would not be equivalents for trinitrotoluol, as they would not waterproof the explyosive or prevent objectionable setting.

hile the invention is more especially applicable to an explosive wherein ammonium perchlorate is the chief, or an important, explosive ingredient, and while I desire to claim the invention as applied specifically to such an explosive powder, the invention", in a more generic aspect, is ca able of application to any explosive powder of which any water soluble salts are important or dominating ingredients.

While I have mentioned the possibility of coating only the sodium nitrate, it is clear that unless all the soluble salts in the composition are coated, the powder will not be entirely waterproof or entirely resist setting into a hard mass.

Having now fully described my inven- The trinitrotoluol tis this 25th day ofMarch, 1920.

tion, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is 1. An explosive powder containing amonium perchlorate and trinitrotoluol with which said salt is coated.

3. An explosive powder containing am- 'monium perchlorate and another water soluble salt acting mainly as an oxidizing agent, and trinitrotoluol coating one of said salts.

4. An explosive powder containing ammonium perchlorate and another water soluble salt acting mainly as an oxidizing agent, and trinitrotoluol coating both of said salts.

5. An explosive powder containing ammonium perchlorate, sodium nitrate, and trinitrotoluol with which both of said salts are coated.

6. An explosive powder containing trinitrotoluol, trinitrotoluol -coated ammonium perchlorate, and trinitrotoluol-coated sodium nitrate. I

7. An explosive powder containing trinitrotoluol, trinitrotoluol? coated ammonium perchlorate, trinitrotoluol-coated sodium nitrate, wood pulp and sulfur.

8. An explosive powder, containing a relatively small proportionof a water soluble salt which is an explosive ingredient of the powder, a relatively large proportion of a soluble salt which is not an explosive inwith which said sa ts are coated, the trinitrotoluol transmitting the explosive waves throughout the explosive and rendering the explosive waterproof, resistant to setting into hard lumps or a hard mass, and detonatable with a #6 standard detonator. 9. An explosive powder containing a relatively small proportion of a water soluble salt which is an explosive ingredient of the powder, .a relatively large proportion of a soluble salt which is not an explosive ingredient and whose main function is that of an oxidizing agent, and trinitrotoluol coating one of said sal i 10. An explosive powder containing a relatively small proportion of a water soluble salt which is an-explosive ingredient of the powder, a relatively large proportion of a soluble salt which is not an explosive ingredient and whose main function is that of an oxidizing agent, and trinitrotoluol coating the salts, the trinitrotoluol being present in a proportion substantially in excess of that required to efiectively coat the salts.

In testimony of which invention, 1 have hereunto set my hand, at Kenvil, N. J on ARTHUR LANGMEIER. 

